The present invention pertains to doors with lites and, more particularly, to such doors having a foam core between the skins.
Doors with metal and plastic skins and foam cores enjoy substantial popularity as entry doors due to their strength, and to their temperature and sound insulating qualities. The metal door also exhibit good fire resistance. Many such doors have a transparent panel or lite to provide interior illumination or to permit viewing of the exterior.
The common method of producing composite metal doors with lites is to first produce the composite door with continuous panels and then to cut an opening for the lite, which is then inserted and fastened. This method suffers from several serious disadvantages. Cutting the opening after the plastic foam has been inserted to provide the core produces composite scrap of steel sheet with foam adhering thereto. This cannot be recycled and is costly. Further, cutting the opening after the foam insertion is a messy process requiring labor intensive cleaning of the skins and handling of waste. Further, both the cut door panels and the scrap often have sharp edges that may be hazardous. Finally, it is difficult to position and size the cutout precisely if it is made after the composite door has been assembled and the foam core has been formed. If the openings in the two skins are improperly aligned or oversized, water may leak into the installed door and it may be absorbed by the foam core and it may ultimately result in rusting of the steel skins.
It is an object of the present invention to provide both a novel composite door with a lite which is readily and economically fabricated with less scrap handling problems. It is also an object to provide such a composite door in which the lite is secured by a frame which is easily installed. Another object is to provide a novel method for making such a composite door which eliminates the messy and potentially hazardous process of cutting the composite door after assembly and foam insertion and which reduces the overall labor content of the door.